Own for Less Than You Rent, Part 2: 12 More Metros

The original own-for-less analysis covered twelve metros where buying a modest duplex, living in one unit, and renting the other beats renting a one-bedroom. This is part two: twelve more metros, the same conservative math, and some challenging results.

Two clear the bar. In two more, owning and renting cost virtually the same each month. Eight cost slightly more to own, including some places you might expect to.

The same math, at today’s rates

The model is unchanged from part one, with one update: part one assumed a 6.0 percent FHA rate, and as of July 2026 the average 30-year fixed sits at 6.49 percent per Freddie Mac, with FHA loans pricing around 6.25 percent. We ran everything at 6.25.

For each metro we take the median asking price across every active small-multifamily listing in the core city, put 3.5 percent down on an FHA loan, and add up the whole monthly cost: principal and interest, upfront and annual mortgage insurance, county property taxes, insurance, and a $200-a-month reserve for repairs and vacancy. Then we assume the other unit rents at or below HUD’s Fair Market Rent, subtract that, and compare what is left against renting a one-bedroom at market rates. Every assumption leans against the strategy on purpose.

The two that clear it

Erie keeps about $235 a month despite carrying the highest effective property taxes on this list, because $140,000 buys the median small multifamily there and one-bedrooms rent for $875. Utica keeps about $225, with the strongest rents relative to price in this batch. In both cities the down payment runs $4,900 to $7,200 — a used-car price, not a lottery win. Margins in the low $200s are real but not roomy: a bad boiler year eats a chunk of one, which is exactly what the $200 monthly reserve in the model is for.

Two where owning costs about the same as renting

Fort Wayne pencils out about $50 ahead, and Canton about $40 behind. At margins that small, the read is that owning and renting cost virtually the same per month, and the verdict flips on an eighth of a point of rate or twenty-five dollars of rent. That is not nothing, though: at the same monthly cost, the owner is paying down a loan balance every month and the renter is not. Break-even living with principal paydown beats most renting outcomes. What it does not support is anyone selling you certainty about a margin that thin.

The eight where renting is cheaper

Pittsburgh misses by about $125 despite healthy rents. South Bend misses by about $150. Davenport and Peoria miss by about $205 and $210, undone by cheap rents on one side and, in Peoria’s case, Illinois property taxes on the other.

Duluth misses by roughly $490: its small-multifamily market is thin (23 active listings) and priced for the lakefront, not the ledger. Cincinnati misses by about $840, with a median that has climbed to $340,000. Green Bay misses by about $1,010. And Minneapolis, the metro I know best, misses by the most: a $465,000 median leaves you paying about $1,145 a month more than renting, even with the other unit contributing $1,405. The strategy worked here for buyers who got in at lower prices and rates. At 2026 numbers, it does not, and pretending otherwise would defeat the point of this site.

What changed since part one

Two things. Rates, first: part one ran at 6.0 percent, this batch at 6.25, and that half-step is worth roughly $50 to $90 a month on these loan sizes (the entire margin in a thin metro). Second, the prices here are medians computed from every active small-multifamily listing in each core city, not portal estimates. The honest takeaway is that the list of places where this works is shorter than optimists want it to be, and it is concentrated in smaller Northeastern and Midwestern markets where a livable two-unit still sells near $140,000 to $205,000 against sturdy rents.

If your city is not here, or you want to test different numbers for one that is, the free house hacking calculator runs this exact math with your own inputs. For metro-level deep dives, the Cleveland, Rochester, and Milwaukee pages go a level deeper than this table, and the statistics page collects the national numbers behind all of it.